Friend says she heard on the news that bf babies are apparently LESS intelligent than ff

[Pesha]

She has bf all hers (6 soon to be 7!) so it wasnt an anti-bf comment. We were discussing extended bfing as something we're both keen on but she mentioned that she had heard on the news that bf babies were apparently less intelligent than ff babies.

I have googled and cant find anything apart from some reports from over a year ago saying that it makes no difference, its just down to the mother's intelligence.

Has there been a new report somewhere that I've missed?

2 people have actually asked Bree to apologise - me, and one other. Hardly 'multiples'.

Of course I was emphatic - someone has understood the opposite of what was in the news. I'd be equally emphatic if someone said 'my friend has told me she heard on the news that Amy Winehouse has found never to have used drugs or alcohol.'

I might even have said 'Wow, how wrong can someone be!'

FGS.

at Violet

I did not deserve the sarky comment from Bree, surely, oilandwater?

Oh, lordy.

@ lapin, anyway.

god who cares about IQ.

EQ is more related to life success anyway.

Happy, happy children. And happy adults. More important than however many points of IQ.

This is probably what Peesha's friend was refering to

Der, Batty and Deary study

V. interesting blog post, Christy, thanks....some good challenges in the comments as well.

Some posts make the point that it's not good science to mix and compare studies with different cohorts and different methods. The definitive study on bf and intelligence is always going to be impossible, but no study (apart from this blog post which does stuff with maths and stats rather than real babies) as far as I am aware has shown that ff increases intelligence.

The big Danish study, often used in these discussions, here, does control for parental IQ but uses the proxy of socio-economic status and education, which the blog writers don't like (though it's a widely used proxy across a lot of research). And I'm afraid they lose me totally when they deny a physical health difference between ff and bf because there's really a whole load of stuff on this, in all settings.

Well... i was formla fed, and i suffer with terrible asthma, so i was determined to bf dd as im scared stiff of her getting ill! shes been totally well so far, and i mix feed.

AND i was a really intelligent kid ( one teacher called me a genius bless) that ended when i discovered boys though

i think that the health benefits are obvious, i think the intelligence etc, is all relevant.

Gosh I really didnt mean to start any sort of bf vs ff debate. I was just looking to find out if there had been some new research or news story that I had missed. Thanks for the links

Personaly I bf my dc because its lovely, easy (and when it is hard its hard in a sitting down way not a faffing in the kitchen way! ) and has health benefits. Any possible increase in IQ is an added bonus afaic. As yurt said, happy children much more important.